


Friends are the Best Bandages

by FencingRealities



Series: Eremin Week II [1]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Bullying, Canon Universe, Canon-Typical Violence, First Meetings, Gen, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-16
Updated: 2014-05-16
Packaged: 2018-01-19 16:06:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1475815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FencingRealities/pseuds/FencingRealities
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One day, back before his cage collapsed inward and hell replaced the lost space, Eren picked up a kindred spirit on the way home from the market.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Friends are the Best Bandages

**Author's Note:**

> I'm submitting this for day 1/7 of Eremin Week II- first meetings. However I wrote this April 7th, before the interview where we found out how it officially happened. Enjoy.

The air was filled with a dull stench that slowly drifted through the branches of shrubs and between homes, completely inconspicuous to those who had always lived in Shiganshina. This morbid and palpable ever-nebulous zephyr was only able to be perceived by those who left it's open lidded container, where it would leave by wafting above the walls, and the men and women would stride on horseback into the jaws of hell. However, there was one young boy who could never  _quite_ realize the smell was present, yet the back of his curious conscious picked up on it, making him always restless and irritable.

The humidity trapped under the thin layer of clouds above made the hot temperature all the more grating as it brushed against the boy's tanned skin. Pacing with heavy steps down the dusty road, his motions sent the burlap bag slung over his shoulder swaying in repeated motions, jostling the loaves of bread and cheese inside. Loud sounds of rambunctious children playing and shrieking fell on ears that had grown used to tuning out such noise as he sucked on the last bit of the honey drops he bought for himself. His mother had told him to give her back the change when he got back, but there was only one coin left, so he ignored her wishes. His frown, which was present on his face more often than not, only etched more into his face when he heard a giggling posse of girls being told by one of their mothers to stay in the neighborhood, and not to even go near the wall. It wasn't so much the mother's orders that bothered him, but the thoughtless compliance they gave in return. Kicking a pebble, the boy thought about how his dad told him to at least  _try_ to make some friends, but he would never want to be so pleasant to someone that would give him a dirty look just for offering to play "explorer" and make believe of stars and lands beyond their grasp. Seven and a half years was a long time to go without a single real friend.

A shrill yelp of pain was ignored, but the boisterous laughter that followed snapped the boy out of his train of thought. He knew that laugh, and it sent his spine ridged. Otto, Rupert, and Falco had always hassled anyone they could that were younger than them, including himself, but they rarely wheedled yelps  _that_ pained out of their victims. If it wasn't enough to send the hot blood coursing through the burly child's veins to a boil, he hadn't heard anything that would have started a fight in the first place; the attack was unwarranted. Not thinking ahead and wanting to know what was going on, he burst into a sprint towards the source, and dropped his bag at the entrance of an alleyway.

The three delinquents were crowded around someone curled into a ball, and the sight ripped a furious growl out of the boy's mouth. The adolescents turned around with creep grins on their faces, which instantaneously turned into frowns of irritation.

"What's going on, Jaeger? Sticking your nose in other people's business? Beat it, or I'll beat you!" Rupert sneered. Eren quickly looked behind him to see a quavering, crumpled mass shrink further in upon itself with the reprieve of blows, then flicked back to the aggressor's faces.

"What did he do to you jerks?" Eren snarled, balling his fists at his sides. "You're beating him up for no reason!" They started laughing at Eren heartily.

" _Him?_ Hell, I thought this pasty snot was a she!" This made a hyena's laughter escape from Rupert and Otto's lips, and a frustrated sob from the other boy. "Being a little bitch isn't  _quite_ as accurate now."

"You'd beat up a girl twice as small as you? Just shut up and just tell me what he did!" Eren stomped on the ground.

"The little shit was walking around alone like he was lost, so we started talkin' to him! You know, since we'd never seen him in _this_ neighborhood before." Falco spat whilst rubbing his nose with his fist. "Then he tried  _avoiding_ us-"

"For good reason!" The ball pipped up.

"Shut up!" One of them cut him off with a kick to the side. "-And started using big words that aren't even real! We told him he was a moron for using gibberish, but he said that they were real words, and obviously  _we_ were the morons for never hearing the word 'keen' before!"

"Morons!" Eren rubbed in; he was already furious with their reasoning.

"Shut your mouth, midget! No one else bothers us or talks back to us except you!" Otto roared, and took his frustration out by swinging his leg into the boy again, squeezing a loud whimper out of him.

 "Stop it!" Eren yelled, and thoughtlessly launched himself at the tallest of them to latch onto his torso, and began pounding his fists into his shoulders. He was immediately snatched by the collar and thrown off into the dust by a different brute. Never exposing his face, the other boy took the opportunity to scurry behind a barrel to hide.

Time sped up and slowed down at the same time for everyone as sophomoric insults and feral growls were spat at each other in the fight, three against one enraged child. Eren, who knew he had a severe disadvantage already, proceeded to give the odds the finger and fight his hardest, but the odds flipped him off in return just as easily. The young adolescents proceeded to inflict that much more damage with their larger, stronger, and more coordinated bodies. Just as Eren launched himself again to pull someone's hair, another looked over to the end of the alleyway, and whistled a sharp note. Without warning the three delinquents started to run, and the one that Eren was latched to threw him off again to the ground to join his fellow cronies.

He looked up with a furious glare, hopeful that he had managed to scare them off, but was only greeted by a lone Garrison officer. His knapsack was slung slovenly over his shoulder, and his posture was jaded when he looked at the scratched up trouble maker with disappointment. Eren scoffed at Hannes, then looked away from him and started to get up. Recently, his dad had helped him and his family, and now it seemed like the man made it his personal business to chastise him when he was out and about. Hannes annoyed Eren; he felt he was being supervised nearly all the time, even if he claimed he was attempting to pay back a debt.

"Oi. I could hear your brawl from a block away, and it sounded like that pack of brats that I keep getting complaints about. Of course you had to go bothering them, even if you've been harassed by them before. Your mother tells you to keep to yourself, doesn't she?" Hannes said slowly, putting his hands on hips.

"I didn't start anything! They were ganging up on someone!" He yelled defensively, fully on his feet now.

"Oh really? Who were they picking on?" The older man said with an amused smile starting to form on his lips, directed at Eren's spunk, but he caught himself and regained his stern demeanor. "I mean, if they were picking on someone, you should have gotten an adult! Not escalate the violence!"

"He sounded like he was being hurt really bad, so I wanted to stop it!" Eren scowled in a still immature voice that would not change for years. "But I don't know who he is. I think I've seen him maybe once before, but I'm not sure."

"Well where is he? We should still help him." Hannes took a knee to talk on Eren's level as he spoke. Eren looked around the alley and out the other end.

"I dunno... I think he left when they ran." He muttered as he wiped his face again, smearing his wrist with small amounts of blood.

Hannes took out a handkerchief from his pocket and smeared it over Eren's dirty face without warning, earning him loud noises of protest. "Here... You're all dirty, Eren."

"I don't care. Get off!"

"Okay, fine!" Hannes ceased and stood back up, staring beyond the entrance. "You need to go home and wash up. I'd take you there myself to make sure you don't start anything else, but I need to look for those rats and the kid to see if he's okay. Can I trust you to go straight home?" He scratched his stubble with thought.

"Fine." The boy spat at him, full of contempt for the coddling actions he received.

"Okay, it hasn't been over a minute or two, but they'e probably gotten far away. I need to go! _Behave_ yourself, kid." Hannes said, giving him a transient wave, and quickly paced off.

Eren had no intention of going home yet.

Thinking the mystery kid had actually run off, Eren started to search around with his eyes and began to leave the alley, however a small sob caught his attention from behind. Even if it hurt to move quickly, he turned around and darted towards the source of the sound with heavy drags of his feet. Eren, who had never seen the other boy leave, went straight for the barrel which was located so close to where he had seen him last. Hearing the sound of angry steps approaching, the boy behind the barrel realized his own sound had betrayed him  _again,_ and the notion only squeezed louder sobs out of him. Without thinking, Eren moved the object out of the way with surprising amounts of force instead of looking behind it. Instantly he saw the crumpled wad of dirty clothes cower in reaction to being exposed. The frail one tried controlling his sputtered breath whilst his face was buried into his knees. He attempted desperately to hold his tears back, to make himself look like he was capable of defending himself, but he couldn't.

"Huh?" Eren slipped gruffly from surprise on his speedy find, overtaken with concern. He nudged the other gently as he could with his foot in an attempt to not startle him. Limp flaps of clothes that were too large for the stranger finally parted in a burst of motion to reveal a mop of gold that framed a round face. For a split second their eyes met, and the one on the ground's expression widened with panic thanks to how close the other was.

"Leave me alone!" He squawked while he scooted away.

"Calm down, those jerks are gone now!" The other taken aback by the blonde lashing out at him, and the large variety of scrapes, cuts, and bruises all over his face, ankles, and even his collar where a few buttons of his shirt had been ripped off. Eren extended his own gnarled hand out to the other to help him up, but the other only flinched violently and squeaked. "What's wrong?" Eren asked slowly, truly empathetic towards the sight of the other hiccuping and sniffling through snot-encrusted nostrils.

"You'll beat me too." He said definitively, in his lack of trust. Normally he didn't act this pathetic, even if eight-year-old boys weren't supposed to cry anyway, but the treatment he had just received rendered him an irrational mess.

"Who says?!"

"I _saw_ how you tried to beat those teenagers up. You could hurt me just as easily, and I just want to be alone."

"But that isn't why I would hit you."

"A lot of people don't like me, so I wouldn't be surprised if you did too, then got angry enough to go after me." The smaller boy fidgeted.

"Because you use fancy words? I promise I won't hit you because of that!"

"No..." He trailed off, denying Eren's claim. After a few seconds, he dared to sneak a glance up his predator, and saw his expression demanded him to continue. He didn't trust Eren at all, but he knew that if he cooperated, the likelihood of leaving further damaged was slimmer. On the other hand, however, if Eren was telling the truth, he could find out very easily. "I talk too much, and people say that I speak my mind..” He paused, and considered whether telling the other about his partially formed ideals that had gotten him into trouble, vocabulary or not, in the first place was a good idea. “Too often. I'm only setting myself up for trouble."

"Oh, I talk about what I want to all the time! What's so bad that _you_ talk about?"

The blonde ignored that first sentence. "Stuff. Adults say I should learn to be quiet, or older kids will start calling me a heretic." He tried to say calmly, but he was still sniffling and in pain.

Eren just stared at the boy, conflicted on what he should do, but as per usual he relied on his instincts, and his instincts told him that the other was worth his time. "I don't see what's wrong with that, but... What's a 'heretic'?" The taller one asked as he bent his knees to crouch. The other flinched again in reaction, but his eyes widened with _curiosity_.

"Uh, a heretic is someone who disobeys the king's orders. I don't understand how my actions and words correlate with wanting to endangering the king's rule, though." He looked towards the sky in thought for a split second.

"What do you say?” Eren insisted. “Because my mom always tells me to stop running my mouth about stuff that I don’t like.” He explained further as he settled on his knees, much to the other’s dismay.

“I-” He choked. This was it, the thing that would create another problem. It was so stupid to him that he had to hold his tongue, but if the people here were hostile to him using words that they didn’t know, he certainly couldn’t tell him other things. That boy looked so much stronger than him, and he needed to get away from the danger. Eren’s eyes pierced him with intense analysis, making this throat constrict further. “I just-” Oh how he wanted to talk about these things with someone, so he could feel like he wasn’t the only one. “I just point out things that don’t make sense. I keep thinking that people would find that helpful so they could fix it, but they just get angry.”

"Well that's stupid." Eren offered. "If people can make something better, they should at least  _try to do so._ " The boy tensed his fists in his broad and nebulous dissatisfaction with the world he lived in, making the other begin to quaver again. He noticed as much, and relaxed his body with a huff of his nose. Once the immediate threat was gone, the boy's pupils dilated.

"I- I think so too." He said hesitantly with a pause. "I'm pretty sure that they get angry because the things I point out are so important to them that they  _really_ don't like any suggestions that they're wrong."

A bitter smile bloomed on Eren's face, neither malicious or spiteful, but contemplating. "Are you right?"

Another long and calculating pause. "Yes."

"I think you would be, since you seem smart. But... what are you right about, exactly?" He asked slowly, sitting down languidly in an Indian style. This confused the one across from him; if he was going to hurt him, it he couldn't catch him if he bolted right now.

"To be honest, I can't place it. But it's the way that people _act,_ and it seems off to me. I may not be able to give reason for people acting the way they do yet to prove I'm right,  but I do know the way things are now are  _wrong._ " He shifted and played with the dust at his feet, and took a large risk. "Do you know what I'm trying to say?"

To Eren, this was a no-brain-er. Something clicked in his premature mind. This boy was putting all of these concepts he had so openly protested without an actual grasp of what he fought against into _actual words._ It was almost  _confusing_ to have his thoughts understood and clarified. "Of course! I'm tired of being yelled at for thinking things, even if they're not _rude._ I think that kids should say what they want too." How come he had never seen this boy around before? "I'm Eren." He blurted unceremoniously with an underlying vigor. "Who are you?" _  
_

"Ar-" He was too busy reeling in what the other was saying to speak properly. He would surely figure it out later, but at the moment he was unaware of the lack of shaking and his relaxing body language because, suddenly, he felt safe talking to him, and he had never felt that way with someone his age before. "Armin. My name is Armin."

Eren seemed to be pleased with his response, and he was relieved that Armin didn't seem _quite_ as inclined to run all of a sudden. "Armin, please stop crying. I won't hurt you." He shushed slowly and reassuringly. Armin wasn't aware of the quality yet, but he did read people well, and he felt that he was being genuine. Another first. Eren started to get up, and Armin  _didn't_ flinch. "Maybe if you figure out why people are acting like such jerks, you could tell me what it is someday. I'd like to know." He stated while dusting himself off. 

"Okay..." Shifting his weight, Armin whined with a sharp pain without warning.

"But you look hurt really bad. My dad's a doctor and he's closer since you live at least thirty miles away, right?" Eren offered him a hand, then quickly clarified: "I haven't seen you before." The smaller of the two only stared at his hand until he determined he would be getting up on his own, but the second he started to move again Eren hand only insistently moved closer. Huffing in annoyance, Armin took the other's hand and stood up, burying the temptation to wince.

"I just moved here, and I think my-"

"Oh!  _That's_ why." He bounced while he pulled the other up as gently as he could. "Welcome to Shiganshina.. I guess." Eren added grumbling, then realized that his mother would be scolding him right now for his tone, and continued to stumble over more additions with fervor, not giving Armin a chance to speak. "Don't worry, my dad's really smart and nice like you, so he'll fix you up! I'm sure your parents won't mind."

"Y-Yeah... They probably would." Armin looked at the ground and pulled away from him, only to look up again to find Eren at the end of the alleyway gesturing for him to follow. He quickly wiped away fresh tears that had pricked in his eyes, and hesitantly followed. 

"You okay? I can piggyback you if you need it!" Nothing brought out Eren's sympathies like the injured.

"Huh?" Armin gasped, more than flustered. "No. I'm fine! I _don't_ need help _,_ okay?" His lips pursed into a taught line and his brows furrowed. The other looked at him with a dismayed and almost offended expression. Not able to see what Armin's problem with piggybacks, Eren merely stared at him with even more determination to help him. He obviously needed it, or else his parents would scold him for getting dirtied up, much like his own parents would.

"Fine. Let's go so you won't be any latter." He motioned with his hands for Armin to follow again, noticing that he had stopped in his tracks again, and Armin slowly obliged. The two walked in silence for a total of seven seconds. "So why'd you move here?" Eren asked. Looking at the road ahead with more focus than before, the other swallowed.

"My Grandpa lives here. I'm seeing him a lot more often now." Armin answered sharply, making the other drop it after a long stare. Another short pause.

"Those jerks said they hadn't seen you around  _here_ before. Did they harass you where you lived before?"

"I've always wondered if they skipped school to take 'day trips' to the town on the other side of Wall Maria. It wouldn't be hard if they hid in a commerce wagon.." He thought aloud to himself. "But no. Nothing honed in at me. They'd just roughhouse and then get caught by the Jinsaw MP division. Then they'd be sent back." Armin sighed. "I used to live in Jinsaw." He added, as what he felt, uselessly.

Eren took this in while he observed the boy, how much he talked aloud in his thoughts, and that weird page boy cut that strangely looked like the style had been crafted for him. That, and if Armin  _really_ existed. No one else thought like he did, nonetheless spoke about it. The notion slowly gave Eren an urge: an ugly and unprecedented urge to know  _more_ about Armin, and what he thought. He wanted to know what he thought about almost everything. Eren's mind had always worked that way; even if he disagreed with an opinion, he could form his own out of them and grow. Even better, from what he had seen, Armin spoke in a way that clarified his own thoughts. Hopefully he'd see him around town so he could talk and play with him.

Interrupting his internal scheming on what he would do with Armin when he saw him again eventually, Armin tapped the other's should to grab his attention with a quirked brow.

"Hey. The building entrance we just passed said 'Doctor' on it. Is that you dad's practice?" He asked patiently.

Eren stopped in his tracks and looked at the back door to his own house, and stared for a split second. "Yep! We're here." Because he saw how the other was still limping, he ran up the short flight of steps to open the door for him, sending the small bell at the top of the door frame into a short clangor. Armin took his time going up the steps somewhat too large for him, and stepped inside with a quiet "thank you". As soon as they were inside, Grisha Jaeger strode in from the front of the house, calling something back to his wife about how their son was late and probably got distracted _again._ Then the man turned to greet his customer, which turned out to be Eren _covered in scratches..._ and a little boy in much worse condition.

"Eren!" Grisha barked, tone more scolding than he intended with considerable undertones of worry. "What happened?" He'd never think that Eren  _hurt_ the smaller one, but his imagination fleeted to all sorts of possibilities.

"This is Armin. He was being picked on by Otto and his friends really badly and I didn't like what they were doing so I rescued him!" Eren announced with a tinge of pride in Armin's direction. Armin's face flushed red and he looked away in embarrassment.

"Eren you have to learn to get an  _adult_ instead of just rushing into things! You could have gotten even more hurt than you were!" He chastised while pulling out gauze and disinfectant creams.

"I know Dad! I didn't want him to get anymore hurt though. He didn't deserve it." He argued, eliciting a small gasp from Armin. The fact that Eren was being honest to him the whole time had just sunk in.

After that, the two were attempted to be separated by Grisha so he could work on treating Armin's wounds. Eren was to be taken care of by his mom, muttering to herself how he would personally skin those three boys for causing so many clients to turn up like this if she ever caught them herself, but first he broke out into a run and took Armin by the hands.

"If I see you again, will you play and talk with me?" He inquired intensively, staring into his giant blue eyes.

"I- sure." Armin stated with hesitance;  _he_ would like to, but he wasn't sure if he'd ever see him again or if he'd change his mind, or if his Grandpa would let him go out again since he had gotten hurt on the first day here. Unfortunately just as he answered, Eren's furious mother grabbed him by the collar and gently dragged him into the other room.

As she was wiping dirt and blood off of her son's face, her demeanor softened with a realization. She asked teasingly if he had made a real friend today. After a short period of contemplation, oddly, he answered no, then explained further that he barely knew him. Carla merely laughed. She witnessed her son treat another his age in a way that she had never seen before back in the other room.

 

~~~

 

Eren and Armin  _did_ get to know each other. Over the next year, they'd occasionally find each other in the streets, slightly more disgruntled with society than the last time, and each time they'd run off to talk and complain together. They'd spend the whole day like that, learning about each other, some opinions identical and some antithesis of their own, until they parted ways again. Eventually, one day Eren caught Armin being beaten, and after an intervention with no hesitance, it turned out it was _Armin_ who had made it escalate. Then he decided that he needed to keep a closer eye on Armin, because his ideas were worth protecting. This resulted in the two talking even more, and slowly, secrets about themselves were exchanged, things that they didn't want to talk about with anyone else. Armin had moved to Shiganshina to live with his Grandpa because his parents had just died. Eren didn't like how he was less and less happy as the days went by. Eren  _still_ thought they were only "acquaintances" whenever his parents asked where he was all day. More months passed of casual conversations with hidden and deeply buried bonds, and it continued until Eren was almost eight and a half and Armin was nine. 

One day, while Eren was lazily staring up at the clouds, day dreaming about where he could visit in "explorer land" with Armin next, his name was called and it broke the thick stupor in the hot summer air. He looked up to see Armin buzzing with excitement and crouching above him with a book in his hands.

They made some promises, and without needing to say anything, they both knew that it was safe to say without any doubts that they were friends.


End file.
